Summary In its ruling, court said the 22-year-old sergeant, surnamed Lim, had shown "unimaginable cruelty".
SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean military appeals court upheld a death sentence Monday for a young conscript who killed five colleagues in a shooting spree at a guard post near the border with North Korea.
In its ruling, the court said the 22-year-old sergeant, surnamed Lim, had shown "unimaginable cruelty".
Lim threw a grenade and opened fire on members of his unit in June last year, killing five and wounding seven.
Captured alive after a failed suicide attempt following a 24-hour standoff, he was condemned to death by a court martial in February, triggering an automatic appeals process, which will go all the way to the Supreme Court.
There is currently a moratorium on the death penalty in South Korea which has not carried out an execution since 1997.
Death sentences are effectively commuted into life imprisonment.
Lim, who was listed as a soldier requiring special observation before the shootings, said he carried out the attack after being repeatedly mocked and harassed by both lower and higher-ranking members of his unit.
Barrack-room bullying has long tainted South Korea s military service, and has been blamed for numerous suicides and shooting incidents.
Conscripts, most of them in their early 20s, account for the lion s share of the military s 690,000 active personnel.
